Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday 29 August 2011


Hands-On Cooking Class Calendar Through December!

If you love Italian cooking and want to learn new techniques, or simply enjoy a delicious Italian meal paired with great wine, join us at our NYC cooking loft for a mouth-watering line up of hands-on cooking classes! Or try the six new recipes we posted on our site this month!
What could be better on the eve of autumn than a feast of mushrooms Italian-style? With their heady woodsy scent and their satisfyingly toothsome texture, mushrooms are one of my favorite go-to ingredients when I want to create an elegant dinner. And there are so many varieties of mushrooms to play with! Creamy oysters, intense shiitakes, pungent porcini, bold chanterelles, delicate cremini, playful morels... The list goes on and on... Join me for our second annual Mushroom Lover's Night, a true ode to funghi in all their versatile glory. We'll start our mushroom extravaganza with homemade ravioli stuffed with roasted shiitake and Mozzarella, dressed with truffle-laced sage-butter sauce. Next up: thin slices of golden veal, sautéed in butter and showered with a medley of wild mushrooms splashed with dry Marsala wine. Our two mushroomy sides showcase the distinct personalities of roasted versus steamed mushrooms: a succulent combination of roasted potatoes and mushrooms, and a sophisticated wild mushroom flan (tortino in Italian) bound together with eggs and Parmigiano. For a sweet finale, we'll bake up crispy apple, walnut, and chocolate pastry triangles, a lovely ending to our mushroom extravaganza.
On the Menu, September 19 at 6PM:
  • Shiitake & Mozzarella Ravioli in Truffle-Laced Sage Butter
  • Veal Scaloppine with Wild Mushroom Medley & Marsala
  • Roasted Fingerling Potatoes & Oyster Mushrooms with Garlic Gremolata
  • Creamy Mushroom Flan
  • Crispy Fruit- and Chocolate-Stuffed Phyllo Triangles with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
This hands-on cooking class lasts from 6PM to 9PM. The cost is $110 per person and includes a full dinner paired with wine. Space is limited, so reserve soon... this class will sell out. You can sign up here.
And if you're a lover of Tuscan food, then don't miss our Tuscan Harvest Feast class on September 26 and learn five of Tuscany's great countryside classics. We'll begin by making rosemary-scented focaccia from scratch; once you learn how to make the dough for this addictive bread, you'll undoubtedly find yourself baking it time and again, with your own flavor variations. Next, we'll prepare one of the region's most amazing soups, a robust commingling of beans, vegetables, and bread that will leave you feeling like you had dinner at a Tuscan farmhouse (and I guarantee that when you make ribollita at home, you'll want to make a double batch just so you can warm up the leftovers the next day, in true Tuscan fashion: after all, ribollita means "boiled twice")! Our main course: tender, juicy chicken slow-cooked with a medley of herbs, onions, wild mushrooms, and a splash of Marsala wine. We'll blanch Florence's beloved fennel and roast it with sage and Parmigiano to golden perfection as a side to our chicken (leftover fennel makes a great frittata or sauce for pasta... not to mention a fabulous crostini topping or late-night snack!). And for dessert, we'll bake buttery tartlets and fill them with a dark chocolate ganache... elegant as can be with a garnish of pine nuts and a dusting of confectioner's sugar.
On the Menu, September 26 at 6PM:
  • Rosemary & Olive Oil Focaccia
  • Ribollita (Bean, Onion, & Vegetable Soup over Garlic-Rubbed Bread)
  • Tender Chicken Morsels with Wild Mushrooms & Marsala
  • Roasted Fennel with Sage & Pecorino
  • Individual Chocolate & Pine Nut Tartlets
This hands-on class lasts from 6PM to 9PM. The cost is $95 per person and includes a full dinner paired with wine. Be sure to sign up here before class sells out.
And of course, we have plenty of other delicious menus lined up for you this fall: our Fresh Pasta Workshop featuring three regional Italian pastas and their ideal sauces on September 10, and our Italian for Beginners class on September 24, where you'll learn to make perfect tagliatelle with homemade ragu, chicken scaloppine with Marsala glaze, roasted broccoli, and the best tiramisu ever, to mention just two of the season's fabulous offerings. Take a look at our complete online class calendar (available through December) here.
Speaking of December... it hardly seems possible to start thinking about the holiday season, but before we know it, it will be here... So to those among you who are looking to organize a unique holiday celebration for your company or group of close friends this year, don't wait too long to book: November and December are the busiest months of the year for private cooking parties and team-building events.
Call us at 917-602-1519 to inquire about hosting your private cooking party or team-building event at RUSTICO COOKING, and select the menu of your choice.
Our corporate clients include A & E Television Network, Unilever, Google, Colgate Palmolive, Credit Suisse, Newsweek, Victoria's Secret, NBC, and many more... Click here for more on our clients and testimonials.
We look forward to cooking with you soon!
Micol Negrin & Dino De Angelis And why not forward this email newsletter to your food-loving friends? The more people around our kitchen table, the better!
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New Recipes

We've added 6 new recipes to our web site this month. Let us know which dishes you prepare! These are perfect recipes for entertaining, and are sure to make your dinner guests feel very special. And consult our complete recipe index here.
Here are links to this month's brand new recipes:
Herb-Flecked Crepes in Chicken Broth
Lemony Octopus Salad
Tuscan Cheese Souffle
Stuffed Swordfish Rolls
Apple Upside Down Cake
Cranberry & Pistachio Biscotti